Vehement Obsession
by xSn0wangel
Summary: When Maka unknowingly sets off a psychologically disturbed classmate she becomes the victim of an obsessive stalker. Will Soul step in before things escalate too far?
1. Up to Bat

His head slammed into the porcelain sink and with a grunt he fell onto his back. Sprawled out on the bathroom tile he sneered up at his attackers who merely continued to laugh as they receded through the doorway. As he achingly climbed to his feet, a maniacal smile cracked across his face; he wouldn't be powerless much longer. That girl who started talking to him four days ago, the one with the pigtails, soon she'd be the ant under his magnifying glass. Yes, the clouds were dissipating and the sun was finally peaking through the dense, twisted branches.

After trudging into the hallway, he started heading towards his locker. Absentmindedly rubbing the aching spot on the back of his head, he attempted to roll some of the soreness out of his shoulders as he walked. Too much time had passed after classes had ended, there was no way he'd run into her now, oh well, he'd just have to bind his time until tomorrow when he'd see her before their first class.

He thought about the way her green eyes sparkled when she conversed with him and how her petite figure confidently strutted itself through the DWMA. She was a wild steed for sure, one that needed to be bridled and saddled.

It was her own fault anyways, she chose him when she threw the ball into his court. She should've known he'd step up to the plate and would only go down swinging.

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"Soul it's time to get up! Breakfast is ready!" Maka sang cheerfully as she opened the door to her weapon's bedroom, but to her surprise he was already dressed.

"You don't always have to wake me up you know," he grumbled irritably.

"Sorry I like to make sure you have time to eat the food I make you," she sang in response. He could be as grouchy as he wanted but he wouldn't ruin her good spirits. Maka grabbed his arm, pulled him to the kitchen, and pushed him into a chair at the table overflowing with food.

"Wow, Maka," he gaped, "You really outdid yourself this morning." She beamed even more if possible and took her seat across from him.

"Well it seemed like you didn't have a very good day yesterday and I was hoping a hearty breakfast might cheer you up," she admitted. At first he just stared down at his empty plate, however, after a couple seconds of deliberation he picked up his fork and dug in.

"Thank you," he somehow said between bites to which Maka politely nodded and turned to her own smaller portions of food. Yesterday they had to practice their combat skills without Soul transforming into a scythe and while Maka's finely-tuned reflexes allowed her to gracefully avoid all the attacks Stein threw at them, Soul had taken quite a beating. She knew the experience itself, as well as Black Star's jabs, had taken quite a hit to his pride, however she hoped after attending classes today he'd resume his typical persona.

"Hey," Maka's head shot up to look at him, "Your food isn't going to eat itself," He muttered. She blinked away her surprise, after he sent her a crooked smile of course, and began eagerly nibbling on a biscuit. Today would be a good day; she was sure of it.

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It didn't happen very often, thanks to Maka's timeliness, but they were nearly late. Soul was pretty calm about the whole situation because he really didn't think they'd learn anything important in the first ten minutes of class, on a Tuesday of all days, therefore, he took his time walking inside from the parking lot. In comparison, his meister had jumped off his motorcycle before he'd even stopped the darn thing and sprinted inside the school. That girl was something else.

Maka deadpanned as she ran past a row of lockers. She didn't even have time to grab her supplies, then again she was sure Tsubaki would loan her a pencil and paper to take notes with. She decided to take a short-cut as she zipped through the hallways and completely bypassed the corridor where her locker was located. There was no way she was ruining her perfect attendance now.

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Where the hell was she? He was virtually all alone in the hallway. There were only a few minutes until classes began and even the laziest stragglers had wondered to their seats, however, there he was: waiting. For the last four days she had stopped on her way to class and said hello to him. It wasn't like she went out of her way to do so considering only seven lockers, he had counted multiple times, separated his locker from hers.

A surge of anger swelled up in his gut as he considered her ignoring him on purpose in order to defy his wishes. How dare she think she can do whatever she wants and how did she even get to class without him seeing her?! He needed to keep better track of his specimen and he decided it was time to begin studying her migrations. Of course he'd be sure to mention this little incident to her because she needed to learn her place and he smirked to himself as he finally began to head to class himself; she'd learn her place all right.

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I hope you liked the first chapter okay. I know it was pretty short but I didn't want to rush the plot. The obsessive character is probably going to be an OC because he's going to be incredibly crazy. I considered having him be Hiro because he was kind of bullied but he doesn't really fit the character concept I'm going for. Anyways please let me know what you think and if I should continue. Thanks for reading (:


	2. Shattered Slides

Although she was always attentive and present for Dr. Stein's lectures, which was more than Soul could've said, Maka found some of the distinguished meister's classes to be rather dull. Her passion for learning simply wasn't a strong enough foothold to make the sociology of indigenous peoples, that day's topic, fascinating. In retrospect, the topic may become very important if Soul and herself ever have to travel to a remote region, populated by a small aboriginal village, to hunt down a kishin; the knowledge being useful for gathering intelligence of the surroundings and sightings of said kishin of course. She sighed as she continued towards her locker. Surely she could logic any bit of information, no matter how tedious, to bear some kind of significant importance; however, she understood that some of the lessons she learned at the academy would never apply to her life and that the students primarily learned large portions of information in order to become well-rounded. So caught up in her superfluous thoughts, she didn't see the lanky boy waiting by her locker

"Oh!" she exclaimed when she finally noticed him, "Hello there Matsuro." Although the greeting was genuinely expressed, from the look on his face Maka could tell something was wrong. In fact, Matsuro looked the epitome of discomfited. His shaggy dark hair looked as unruly as ever, almond shaped blood-shot eyes bore into her own, and he was standing unusually close to the lockers but not leaning against them while still retaining a broad stance. He was shorter than Soul, when her partner stood up straight, but had thicker appendages that were barely visible through the baggy clothing he wore. Maka cocked her head slightly as she continued to study his body language.

"Um, is something wrong?" she hesitantly questioned, but instantly regretted it after seeing him seethe.

"You didn't say hello to me this morning," he grunted through clenched teeth. Taken aback, Maka blinked a few times but quickly recovered.

"Well you see I was running behind this morning so I went straight to class. But we're talking now so…" she trailed off.

"You're lying. You intentionally ignored me this morning!" he affirmed while taking a step closer to her. Despite doing so, Maka held her ground which only seemed to make him even angrier.

"You think you can do whatever you want," he sneered.

"W-what are you talking about?" she faltered slightly at his last statement and took a half step back when he leaned, from the waist, towards her. What was up with him today? Every other time she'd spoken with Matsuro he'd quietly spoken with her and had never come closer than six feet or so. Now he was practically breathing down her neck and biting out every syllable. He'd never made her feel uncomfortable to be around him in the past, however, she wished she could either place a considerable distance between them, that one of the students meandering through the corridor would notice her predicament, or at least that Soul was by her side. Where was Soul anyways?

Matsuro broke her thoughts by suddenly turning on his heels and briskly shuffling away altogether.

"Wait! Ah," Maka started, nevertheless, the grungy boy turned the corner, at the end of the hallway, and disappeared from her sight altogether. Her eyebrows furrowed as she considered what an odd occurrence that was. Despite her conscience telling her something was seriously off about Matsuro, she couldn't help wondering if maybe he was simply having an off day, not unlike Soul's experience the previous day. She wasn't naïve enough to think that it was the only reason he had acted so strangely just then, however, her repressed worry for Soul overpowered any fleeting concern she had for what had just transpired and after hurriedly grabbing what she needed from her locker, Maka took off in search of her missing partner.

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Soul closed the door to Stein's classroom and began his trek through the school. His teacher had certainly sensed Soul's anger over his performance in class yesterday and had given him some exercises to practice in order to improve his actions during combat. Optimistic that the next time he had to fight without transforming that he'd kick some serious butt, he happily went to find Maka so that they could go home for the day. Cringing as his stomach rumbled, he sincerely hoped he'd find her soon and that he could convince her to make sashimi for dinner.

"Soul!"

"Speaking of Maka," he mumbled to himself and turned around to face her. He instantly read the distress in her eyes and felt a pang in his chest. She was always worrying about him too much, constantly over thinking everything; girls were weird like that, or at the least, Maka was.

"How are you?" she asked with an unsure smile on her lips after coming to his side and while subconsciously straightening out her skirt.

"Good," he said while returning her smile with a more brilliant one, "And you?" Sensing the change in his disposition, she lit up and enthusiastically grabbed his hand.

"Never better!"

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Careful not to make a sound, he slinked expertly within the shadows. He knew she could sense souls, as could he, therefore he made sure to keep a far enough distance where she wouldn't pin-point his own soul as alarming or even differentiate it as his own; far enough away where she would write him off as just another person meandering in Death City. She had been far too full of herself today! He hated that look in her big green eyes. First she ignored him and then lied about it, and lastly she hadn't backed down until-

He clutched a fistful of his hair in both hands and twisted his wrists angrily. As soon as he'd left her standing alone in the hallway he'd retreated into the bathroom and punched the mirror until his knuckles were cut and oozing blood down his arms. As he stared into the remainder of the reflective glass he caught sight of a fading bruise gracing his cheekbone. Rage no longer sated, he continued his rampage on the mirror until it was nothing but shattered, bloody fragments that lay strewn across the floor. He wasn't going to be the punching bag anymore. He wasn't going to be the victim.

He recalled the fear in her eyes when she stepped away from him and how great it felt to be able to force her into feeling what he wanted her to. In that moment, he had her right where he wanted her. If he had pushed her face into the cold flooring and pressed a foot upon her back he was positive he would have felt the same rush.

The entire time he followed her back to her apartment, head tucked under his black hood, Matsuro smiled. She was going to pay for how he was treated.

Alrighty, that was it for this chapter. I had a lot of trouble just getting myself to sit down and commit to writing this one. However, I think the constant reminder that so many people were following this story helped me to finally do it. Sadly things are only going to get worse for Maka from here on out. Please let me know what you think (: Thank you soooo much to the two people that have reviewed thus far (:(: Thanks to everyone for reading!


	3. Narrowing Horizon

For Maka, the next couple of weeks passed by rather uneventfully. She went to class, visited with all of her friends as much as possible, dealt with all of Soul's antics, and studied herself to sleep every night. Her partner and herself had gone on a couple of missions here and there, however, none of them were especially challenging; especially the one they had completed only yesterday.

Their mission to southwestern Colorado to take out the kishin Kimball Thimble, named for the millions of needles it formerly spewed from its body, had gone rather smoothly until Soul pointed out all the dead squirrels, prairie dogs, and other small animals lying nearby the road they were traveling on. Maka urged him to stop driving for a moment so that she could take a closer look and first she thought that the poor things had been run over by careless drivers, yet after further investigation she noted that there was no evidence of their bodies having been crushed or even picked apart in any way. When she cleverly considered their current geographical location, she hastily told Soul that they needed to get as far away from the deceased critters as quickly as possible. She knew what had happened to the poor animals and if the two of them walked too close to their decaying bodies they could possibly meet the same end.

Shivers travelled down her spine as she explained to Soul that the deaths were due to the same disease that nearly wiped out the human population of Europe centuries ago; they had contracted the bubonic plague, otherwise known as the Black Death. Due to the sickness being carried by infected fleas, they would be safe as long as they kept an adequate distance from the corpses, however, Maka also knew that fleas could jump approximately one hundred times their body length and didn't want to risk either Soul's or her own life just to take a look at a dead animal.

After an infected flea infects a new host, it quickly succumbs to the disease which of course means that the insect must move on to another living specimen in order to survive. However, fleas aren't host specific and will readily travel to whatever warm body happens to pass by and will feed upon it until it too suffers a horrible, painful death.

Soul mocked her slightly about being fearful of a little flea but nonetheless drove somewhat faster; naturally hoping she wouldn't notice.

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Once they had given their mission report to Lord Death, and had returned to Death City, Maka hurriedly made the trip back to the DWMA in order to pick up some of her school books she'd forgotten to bring home with her. Soul had begrudgingly agreed to accompany her on the trip, but because she singlehandedly determined that he needed time to wind down after their mission, she told him to stay home. Ecstatic at being able to stretch her legs after such a lengthy trip on Soul's motorcycle, Maka enjoyed her walk more than she normally would have and was at her locker, at the academy, in no time at all.

While rifling through her notebooks and textbooks she came across a manila folder that she automatically knew didn't belong to her. Shifting her weight to one leg and narrowing her eyes in deep reflection, she couldn't recall ever seeing the file previously. Perhaps she'd picked it up by accident and it belonged to someone else.

"Maybe there's a name inside," she thought out loud as she opened it. As soon as she saw what laid inside she slammed it shut, clutched it against her chest, and mind a whir, automatically began concentrating on the souls of everyone around her.

He was right outside of the school.

Shell-shocked, Maka ran from the building through a side door, hoping to avoid him altogether. On the contrary, he seemed to sense her exact movements and met her in the courtyard.

"Hello Maka."

Her body outwardly froze whilst her heart thumped uncontrollably within her ribcage. She needed to let him know that this wasn't okay, that he couldn't just follow her around like that. Around school she'd been running into him more and more over the weeks, however, she knew he was treated badly by some of the other students and that she may be his only friend so she downplayed the negative feelings that twisted in her gut every time he gave her that three-fingered wave and flashed an all-knowing smile.

"Matsuro, you need to stop following me," she stated as confidently as she could manage. She couldn't let him know just how threatened she felt by him at the present. He smirked and dragged his fingers through his trademark unkempt hair.

"It's a game you know," he boldly stated. He saw how his words affected her instantaneously and slyly reached into his back pocket. Her eyes widened dubiously when she saw the black camera clasped in his hand and he laughed as he held it up to his face. The flash went off as he took a candid photo of her.

"Well it's not a game to me!" she firmly retorted, "You need to stop this right now. I don't want to have to get Lord Death and my father involved." Matsuro took two steps towards her and Maka took three steps back.

"Are you that weak? It's not like they'd be able to stop me anyways." Although her immediate response was to question the very logic of what he was saying, she couldn't help but wonder if he was right. Was she that pathetic that she couldn't even handle one guy following her around? No, she was Maka Albarn and she was going to be the greatest meister to ever graduate from the academy. She couldn't believe how incredibly feeble she had sounded when she said she'd tell her Papa; like a child calling for her "Mommy".

Even so, there was a chance that this person would attempt to physically harm her at the present and without Soul around, she could be powerless depending on what Matsuro was capable of. She knew that if he tried to use his fists she could easily avoid his attacks and maybe land a few of her own, she could run long distances speedily enough, and yet, she wasn't bulletproof. Considering he had never threatened her, Maka took a few deep breaths before deciding it was best to return to her apartment. That would give him two options: he could either follow her home, where Soul would be more than willing to spring into action, or he could choose not to go after her at all. Without giving him any indication, Maka began sprinting in the direction of her home.

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Standing in front of her door, Maka groaned and rested her forehead upon the wood. He hadn't chased her home; in fact, he didn't even take one step in her direction.

The whole event had really shaken her but she honestly couldn't understand what had gotten into Matsuro. The lanky boy had always been polite and when they'd conversed after classes he'd never sounded angry even when he'd told her about how others had treated him.

According to his descriptions, people were downright horrid to him for absolutely no reason. He'd show her the purple spots dotting his arms and the injuries marring his face would make her cringe helplessly. She would calmly advise him to report the abuse to the school faculty or tell Lord Death himself, however, he would shrug off her comments and his eyes would glaze over whenever she attempted to persuade him. Wholeheartedly, she believed that he didn't deserve the treatment he was roughly receiving, nevertheless, she couldn't force him to inform someone about it and it wasn't her place to tell.

Pulling her key out of her pocket, Maka leaned back far enough to ensure she was jamming the piece of metal into the lock and let herself into the apartment. She heard someone moving around in the front room and shifted to see Soul sprawled across the couch with his headphones on. Assuming he wouldn't be able to hear her, she when straight into her room instead of greeting him. She needed to hide the folder before he could curiously inquire as to why it wasn't the books she had claimed to be retrieving.

Sitting down on her bed, she nervously opened the folder once more: about fifty pictures of her were tucked inside. She couldn't believe that he had been following her the last few weeks and she hadn't noticed it one bit. There were photos of her all around the DWMA, at the supermarket, and while walking through town. Maka's hands began to shake when she realized that the entire collection of instances that he had photographed, she had been alone; Soul didn't appear in a single photograph. Fear heightening her senses, she felt the presence of the last soul she wanted to see.

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Pain coursed through his ankle as he limped his way down the street. Those guys had done a number on him that day, but he was too high on endorphins to really feel anything aside from pure glee. She had liked the present he had given her. She had even taken it home with her.

It was about time that she realized that she was a bug trapped in a web; she could squirm as much as she wanted and it wouldn't change a damn thing. Now that he knew her routine, he could make her aware of his presence whenever he wanted to. A leer etched itself across his face as he considered the best part of his situation: he could reaffirm his dominance without even showing his face. Lucky for him, she could sense souls while her partner would remain blissfully unaware. Then again, that didn't mean he would have to stay away all the time. Looking up into her bedroom window, illuminated by the streetlights, Matsuro gave her a three-fingered wave before disappearing back into the darkness.

"Good night Maka."

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That's all for this chapter. I am pleasantly surprised at how long it ended up being. I hope you didn't find the whole mirror shattering event in the last chapter to be as incredibly cliché as I did when I re-read it today -_- Therefore I hope this chapter was much more original. I also want to stress that I wasn't making up that bit about the bubonic plague, be weary of where you go hiking. On a side note, I bet this whole update came as a surprise because I just wrote the last chapter yesterday but I don't have a set plan for when I intend to write/post chapters so expect more randomness. Thank you so much to my five lovely reviewers (: and thanks to all readers!


	4. Rocky Slopes

As he rifled through the piles of old papers on his desk, Soul couldn't help but groan and roll his eyes. The absolute last thing that he wanted to do today, on a delightfully sunny Saturday, was clean his room. But Maka did ask him to help her tidy up their apartment a couple weeks ago and he wasn't the kind of weapon that would break a promise to his meister, even if he'd rather be outdoors. He tossed a few overused pencils into the lovely pen cup Black Star had given to him for his birthday; Soul knew his best friend had totally blanked and had given him Tsubaki's favorite hot chocolate mug.

Even if he had to tidy up, things could have been much worse. Maka had told him that as long as he made his room look presentable that she could take on the rest of the rooms unaccompanied and luckily, all he had left to do was to organize his desk area. On the other hand, Maka had only tackled the bathroom and their living room thus far. She'd be working hard for the rest of the afternoon and maybe into the late evening at her current rate.

He felt his shoulders sag as he tossed some graded homework into the garbage. Being the cool guy he was, Soul really should offer to help her, however, he was seriously itching to take down a certain big-talking assassin at basketball. Not to mention he'd heard that the nice weather today wasn't going to last because there were going to be storms rolling in that were going to hang around for the entirety of next week. What was he to do?

Stepping back from his desk and admiring his room overall, he called Maka to make sure it was clean enough for her incredibly high, in comparison to his own, standards. It took her longer than he thought it would to walk through his doorway and after she did he understood why. Poor Maka's face and clothes were plastered in dirt and her hair stuck out wildly from behind the bandana she had fastened around her forehead. He would've expected her to be quite angry for whatever reason caused her to be so filthy, but oddly enough she wore a somewhat weary and defeated expression.

"Sorry," she said as she rubbed the back of her hand over her cheek, "when I was changing the bag on the vacuum cleaner I tripped and dirt flew everywhere." He formulated a witty response in his head but bit it back after thinking better of it.

"Your room looks good though," Maka commented before smiling slightly, yet knowing her so well Soul could see how forced it was. He reached out and wiped some of the dirt off of her chin while muttering that they should probably take care of the mess in the other room.

"It's okay Soul, you don't have to help. I know how much you want to enjoy the weather and it's my fault anyways." His hand dropped from her face as he pondered her words carefully.

"No if I leave you here then you'll be stuck in for the rest of the day."

She spun on her heels and began to leave the room while calling over her shoulder, "Oh, don't worry about me. I'll be fine. It's just a little cleaning." His hand gently clasped her upper arm and she stopped in response.

"I'm staying," he firmly stated, "I can't have a good time knowing you're holed up here." She turned around to face him once more and truly smiled. He wasn't stupid, Soul knew when his meister wanted his help and could tell when his actions meant a lot to her.

"Well let's get on with it then," he not-so-enthusiastically said, to which she laughed and began pulling him into the other room.

"Don't worry! Most of the dirt got on me anyways…"

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It had only been about a month since he'd spent all day spring cleaning with Maka yet the apartment was looking worse than ever. Soul half-heartedly swept his eyes over the mess that was previously their living room. He honest to Death considered tidying up a bit, the least he could do was to pick up the plates scatted here and there, but as he stared into the masses of clothes and papers he lost all motivation to do anything except to collapse onto the couch. Laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling, he heard Maka's door close. No surprise there.

Soul sighed loudly and chucked his shoes over to where he should've left them by the door. They'd been home less than five minutes and she'd already shut herself up in her room; it was a new record. For reasons, unknown to him, Maka had been heading straight to her room after they got home from school and then stayed there for the rest of the evening.

He couldn't imagine what he had done to make her not want to spend time with him and he'd been racking his brain trying to think of ways to get it out of her. He had tried multiple times to simply ask her what was wrong but she would give him a blank look and the same response: "Nothing, I'm fine".

Every night at promptly six o'clock, she'd walk to the kitchen, grab an apple or some leftovers and return to the solace of her bedroom. He would purposely cook his own food early so that it'd be ready when she came looking for dinner, however, she'd politely refuse his offers and opt for something much smaller. She was already naturally lithe yet Maka was certainly getting thinner, he noticed her clothes were beginning to hang off of her frame, and he was very concerned about it. He'd even made a special trip to the grocery store and purchased all of her favorite foods but she barely touched any of them.

As he drummed his fingers on top of the sofa he wondered if Maka's condition was something that he could even handle on his own. He knew girls almost always had self-esteem issues and he hadn't exactly helped her muster up self-confidence every time he called her tiny-tits. But she was always such a strong girl with an unbreakable spirit, what had happened to screw that up?

If he was the cause of whatever was bothering her, which he probably was since she was avoiding him, maybe Tsubaki would be able to talk to her or something. How infuriating it was for his meister to not be upfront with him about something so serious. Groaning once more, he sat up and headed to the kitchen. Perhaps if he made the food and then refrigerated it she'd eat it…

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Maka had been staring at the page in front of her for a solid twenty minutes at least, yet she couldn't calm her mind down enough to actually comprehend the words printed on it. She pressed her hand to the paper beneath the first sentence in hopes that if she concentrated enough she could finally read it. Squinting her eyes in thought, Maka's stomach growled and she shifted uncomfortably. The aroma from the fish Soul was grilling smelled heavenly. But then she sensed _him_ again.

Matsuro had been pacing below her window ever since she had gotten home. Just being there with that creepy look on his face was enough to unnerve her and distract her from getting any studying done. She seriously considered leaving her room and munching on Soul's apt cooking, however, she was afraid of what her schoolmate would do if she was out of his sight for too long. Sure Soul was home so they'd be able to fight him if he was provoked, but she was afraid of the consequences of doing so. Would he follow her more closely after that? Or target her when she was alone? Maka didn't want to take any chances and she certainly didn't want Soul to get involved. It was her own fault that Matsuro was enamored in her anyways and eventually he'd get tired of her, right?

Hungrier than ever, she headed toward the kitchen; luckily Soul got some sugar snap peas for her on his last shopping trip.

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Soul couldn't help but think that there were few things more terrible than waking up in the middle of the night with a dry throat. He threw the covers off his bed, slowly rolled off the bed, and landed on his feet. After waiting a few seconds for his vision to solidify, Soul headed to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

He grabbed a cup from the cabinet and filled it up under the tap. Though when he lifted the glass to his lips Soul was caught off guard when he finally noticed Maka watching him from her seat on the counter and nearly dropped his water.

"Ma-," he croaked and then grimaced at the feeling in his throat; Maka smiled at his antics but it was short-lived. Once he took a long swig of water, he tried again.

"Maka, what are you doing in here? It's like three o'clock," he trailed off. She averted her eyes and pulled her legs up to her chest.

"I just couldn't sleep is all." Soul rubbed one of his eyes as he took in her haggard appearance and felt a pang of helplessness in his chest; how was he supposed to help her if she wouldn't tell him what was wrong?

"How come? Did you have a bad dream or something?" he questioned. She seemed to contemplate his inquires for a moment while pulling on the end of one of her braids and then hopped off of the counter.

"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it," said Maka. While Soul felt he could relate to this, having withheld his own nightmares from his partner before, at the same time he knew that there was more to it. Then again, he didn't have much time to think about these things in his drowsy state-of-mind because if he knew Maka as well as he thought he did, she was about to make a run for it.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." She blinked awkwardly and took a sip from her own glass of water.

"I'm fine," she half smiled, "I just have some things I have to work out on my own." Soul finished off his drink and set the empty glass in the sink. Then he walked over to Maka and pulled her into a loose hug. She stiffened slightly before relaxing in his arms and resting her head on his shoulder. The situation with Matsuro simply drained everything out of Maka; thank goodness he had left the alley a few hours ago. Even without his physical presence lurking nearby, the threat of him returning haunted her dreams and demoralized her. When he wasn't watching her, she was sure he was still constantly thinking about when he'd terrorize her next.

"Just remember you don't have to do it all by yourself, okay?" When Maka slowly nodded her consent Soul felt his heart swell happily. Maybe he had gotten through to her after all or at least, he hoped he had.

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Alrighty that was chapter four (: I had major writers block for a while there but I pulled out of it thanks to all of the reviews and story followers! This chapter was primarily Soul and Maka's relationship but Matsuro will be back in the next one (he's just so hard to write sometimes). Anyways thanks for reading and I'm finishing up my online classes next week so expect the next installment in early July!


	5. Coming to a Head

Head whirling and fists raised, Maka sprang out of bed and nearly halfway across the room. Instantly alert, she quickly accessed all the souls surrounding her own, but upon feeling no soul out of the ordinary, her shoulders slumped and she straightened out her unruly pajama top. Maka, meister of Death's next weapon, had once again succumbed to a silly bump in the night.

Glancing at the clock and seeing the time, she shrugged off her nightshirt and pulled on her academy clothes. She sat down at her desk and opened the nearest book with a smile. It may be four in the morning but her desire to read always peaked in the mornings anyways.

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Soul hated the morning drive to the academy. While driving the motorcycle gave him a dose of adrenalin, the redundancy of the same route to the DWMA everyday left him bored and simply driving through the motions. As he was letting his mind wander aimlessly and zipping down side-streets, he noticed a lanky guy, on the right-hand side, ahead of him. The dark-haired boy seemed to sense them coming because he turned and looked Soul straight in the eyes as he drove by. It took a few seconds for his recollection to kick it but then he recognized the guy as Matsuro the meister? He couldn't remember for sure.

His fingers tightened on his bike as he recalled Black Star talking about him one day. Apparently a few months ago some guys were knocking him around in the courtyard and when one of them stomped down on his chest, the guy managed to reopen a six- inch stab wound that nearly caused Matsuro to bleed out. But the strange thing was he hadn't been on any missions in nearly a third of a year.

He remembered Black Star's eyes bugging out and hands flying around theatrically as he told the story save for abruptly muttering something about Matsuro's parents possibly being behind it. Soul didn't think his best friend was insensitive, just uncomfortable with the subject-matter and he didn't blame him one bit for behaving the way he did.

Supposedly Lord Death tried to intervene and told the bullies that if they continued to harass Matsuro that they'd be expelled, however, the taunting continued, just on more hushed terms. Yet, Soul had no idea why they'd risk expulsion just to beat-up a kid that didn't fight back. He knew that bullying was all about the rush of power that came with picking on someone weaker than one's self, but who could feel power hungry at a school that every day gave students the power to flex their power against kishins? Some people just weren't cool.

Soul felt his meister's fingers apprehensively twitch against his sides as if fighting the urge to tighten her grip around his ribs. He wondered if she'd seen Matsuro as well and was also dwelling on the rumors surround the mysterious boy. As they pulled into a parking space, he felt Maka rest her head against his back and after pulling off his helmet, looked over his shoulder curiously at her.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked to which she sat up and glanced at him with glazed eyes but otherwise didn't respond.

"Maka," he pressed, she was beginning to worry him. Reaching up and tugging off her own safety gear, she gave a big yawn and finally seemed to realize he was talking to her.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm just tired you know, after last night and everything." Soul opened his mouth to push the matter further, however he completely forgot what he was going to say when a cloud of dust surrounding Black Star, who was pulling Tsubaki, passed by. Laughing softly to himself at the sight, Soul decided to drop the matter with Maka and began walking after them while absentmindedly wondering if he should speak to Tsubaki later in the day.

"Come on Maka. We can't let Black Star of all people beat us to class."

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Tossing her school books aside, Maka shut her apartment door behind herself and began pacing anxiously. Soul had dropped her off outside, after insisting he drive her, on his way to go out to dinner with Tsubaki. She certainly hadn't seen that coming.

Grabbing a bag of almonds out of one of the kitchen cabinets, she settled into her chair at the table and inattentively repeatedly kicked its legs with her heels. Maka had never seen her partner flirt or show any kind of romantic interest in Tsubaki, so then why was he going out with her? She could easily understand her coming over to visit or Soul going over to her and Black Star's apartment, but having dinner at a restaurant?

Finally relaxing a bit more, she shrugged her long sleeve shirt off and immediately pulled it back on. Caught up in her mind before, she hadn't noticed how frigid the air was. Begrudgingly she went to check the thermostat and was alarmed to see that it had been dialed down to a brisk fifty-five degrees. Soul had never turned it down so low before however, she quickly adjusted it to a more comfortable setting and headed back to her after school snack without a second thought.

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Soul picked at the plate of food in front of him, but his gut bothered him too much to eat much of it. Tsubaki had apologetically left a few minutes previously after Black Star had ambushed their meeting and according to Soul it was just as well. It turned out that she was just as clueless about how to help Maka as Soul himself was. She insisted that he try to get her to come out and tell him exactly what her problem was by thoughtful persuasion, but hadn't he already tried that? Maka was so stubborn when it came to asking others for help sometimes and he knew that better than anyone.

He took another half bite of food and set his fork down for good; Maka's cooking was so much better than it anyways. Deciding that sitting there moping around wouldn't do him anymore good, Soul paid for his meal and headed home.

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A loud knocking at the door jolted Maka from her much-needed nap. Upon using her soul perception, she froze: Matsuro was outside her apartment.

"Open up Maka. I know you're in there."

Although internally panicking, she quietly retreated to her bedroom, pressed her back up against the door, and slid to the ground. He had never come so close to her home before, however, considering Matsuro had invaded all of her personal spaces at the DWMA, it was only a matter of time until he barged even more into her life. It was like he was backing her further and further into a corner.

Hiding in her room with her legs pressed up to her chest made her feel utterly weak but what else could she do? The banging on the door continued erratically while she lamented on her situation. The weeks of constant following had physically and mentally drained her; then again Maka was far from stupid. She had noticed that Matsuro thrived on her reactions and had tried to cease all contact with him in order to bore him out of harassing her. Occasionally he would leave rather quickly when she didn't respond to him, on the contrary, he would become provoked even more so than before. It was a lose-lose situation that she couldn't seem to find a foothold to climb out of.

Rubbing her face into her knees, Maka prayed that he'd give up before Soul got home. Her chest ached as she considered having to tell her weapon that she'd hid in her room from a guy that had never laid a hand on or had even threatened her.

She dropped her legs and they splayed out in front of her before she began feeling as though her breaths weren't fulfilling. Head spinning as she continued to hear the ever-present thudding on the front door, spots crept into Maka vision and her lungs attempted to go into over drive. Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes as she desperately gasped for air and her head throbbed painfully.

Realization finally dawned on her and survival instincts kicking in, she tucked her head down between her legs. It took several long minutes before she felt her pulse slow and breathing deepen but was more relieved to sense Matsuro withdrawing than anything else.

She was lucky that she broke out of her hysterics before she passed out from lack of air. More annoyed than ever at herself, Maka kicked a nearby book across the room. There had to be a better way to handle Matsuro. She shook her head and through the window she could see the sun was setting. There had to be a better way to handle her stress.

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Soul wasn't surprised that he didn't see Maka when he got home, however, he was caught off-guard by the half eaten bag of almonds resting on the table. Thrilled that she had eaten so many, he almost skipped to her room but stopped quickly reminded himself how uncool that would be. Sighing at himself, he knocked on Maka's door and waited patiently for her to answer.

"Come in," she muttered. When he let himself in, she was sitting cross-legged on her bed and he took a seat beside her.

"How was dinner?" she inquired rather out of the blue. He hadn't expected her to be the one to break the ice; maybe worming an answer out of her wouldn't be as difficult as he originally thought.

"Could've been better, how was yours?" He took in the red splotches on her cheeks as well as sagging shoulders and guessed her answer before it could be said.

"Could've been better."

Soul pushed himself back until he was leaning against the wall and inclined his head to stare at his hands in his lap. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Maka visibly relax. If there was one thing he loved about their partnership, it was that they fed off each other's energy.

Feeling a bout of confidence, he leaned over and grabbed her hand in his own. He toyed with her fingers curiously and she watched him with mild interest until they met each other's eyes.

"Next time, I want to have dinner with you," he said truthfully. Maka's face softened and she shifted so that she could rest her head on his shoulder. She could have the absolute worst day and somehow he could make her forget all about it with a few choice words. Pushing a few stray hairs out of her eyes, she wondered if she had been so stressed lately because she had been pushing her partner away.

It honestly wasn't fair to either of them the way she'd been acting. Not only did she force herself to carry a burden too heavy for her shoulders, but unbeknownst to herself, Soul had gathered his own weight trying to help her. The situation with Matsuro was getting way too out of hand and after her weak moment earlier she knew that she couldn't face it by herself any longer. While she knew telling her weapon would express to him how utterly pathetic she was, now that Matsuro had paid a visit to their door, Soul's own safety was threatened and it wasn't fair for him to be unaware of that fact.

She feels him shift inquisitively after she sighs and lifts her head to take in his guarded expression. This wasn't going to be easy, but she needed to do this for the both of them.

"I'll tell you what's been bothering me if you tell me why tried to freeze me to death," said Maka jokingly, however, Soul didn't look amused at all.

"What are you talking about?" She laughed a bit, thinking that he was playing dumb but was puzzled by his realistic looking frown.

"The thermostat was set to fifty-five degrees! I almost forgot it was August!"

Soul looked at her oddly before replying, "Maka, I didn't adjust the thermostat."

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Alrighty there's chapter five (: I bet most of you expected it sooner and I apologize for that however, I haven't been as immersed in the Soul Eater universe lately so it hasn't been at the forefront of my mind. I hope you don't mind the lack of Matsuro in this chapter as well, I suppose I consider him as a constant presence and therefore, don't really feel like forcing him in. If my calculations are correct there should be two or three more chapters to this story and the next one is certainly going to be the climax so get excited for that! Oh and the temperatures discussed are in Fahrenheit. Thank you so much for the thoughtful reviews and for reading, it really does mean a lot to me (:

*Update: Oh my goodness I'm so embarrassed! I opened this story for the first time today and realized that none of my line breaks have been making it into the chapters. I updated all the chapters with the new spaces but I did it in a hurry so I apologize if I messed anything up. So sorry about that :(


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